Queen Wilhelmina's Wedding Gift Parure
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Queen Wilhelmina's Wedding Gift Parure |
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| This diamond and sapphire parure consisting of a very high tiara, mirrored necklace and two bracelets. This impressive parure was made by Dutch Jeweller Israel & Hoetig in 1900. It was a wedding gift from the people of the Netherlands to Queen Wilhelmina in 1901 when she married Duke Heinrich of Mecklenburg-Schwerin. It is said that Queen Wilhelmina wore the parure only for portraits because of its weight and instability. Queen Juliana considered the tiara and necklace too old fashioned or at least unsuitable to be worn. In 1962 she ordered the tiara to be broken up by a jeweller in order to make smaller diamond and sapphire jewellery for Queen Wilhelmina's four granddaughters, as a memento. Four sets of diamond and sapphire earrings, brooches and bracelets were made for Princess Beatrix, Princess Irene, Princess Margriet and Princess Christina. But that could hardly have consumed all the stones from the large tiara. The white gold frame was supposedly given to the Jeweller as payment and melted down. The only original parts of the parure that remain is the mirrored necklace and the two bracelets. The necklace has not been seen for more than 70 years, if it still exists. Only recently did parts of the necklace (re) surface as ornaments that were placed on a converted necklace /tiara from the Sapphire Parure. The bracelets are still used by members of the royal family. The dismantling of this parure is one of the biggest mysteries surrounding the Orange-Nassau jewels because not long after the dismantling of the tiara, Queen Juliana decided to put all the jewels into a family foundation with the clear stipulating that none of the pieces in it could be sold or broken up. |
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| The Tiara (broken up) | The Necklace (present state unknown) | The Bracelet | |
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| The Bracelet (altered) | HM Queen Wilhelmina | HM Queen Wilhelmina | |
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| HM Queen Wilhelmina | HM Queen Wilhelmina | HM Queen Wilhelmina | |
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| HM Queen Wilhelmina | HM Queen Wilhelmina | Close-Up | |
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| HM Queen Wilhelmina | HM Queen Wilhelmina | HM Queen Wilhelmina | |